When the Bahamas Amateur Athletic Association - now Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) - was founded on May 6 1952, the International Amateur Athletic Association - now International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) - was 40 years old. That was the year of the Helsinki Olympics that spurred the BAAA to seek ratification by the IAAF.
The BAAA's first president was Alfred Francis (AF) Adderley, who died a year later on his way from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Helsinki was the second Olympic Games after the second World War; the preceding games were held in London in 1948.
London saw the initial participation of many countries from our region, including Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. They made their marks, and 66 years later we wonder just how athletics in the Olympic Games were without the Caribbean influence.
The BAAA sent its first team to an international competition in 1954 - the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. Sports journalist Cyril Richardson, the then president of the BAAA, was the manager of the team that included the late Irrington Isaacs - who was the first to compete, Leonard Dames, and Cyril Johnson.
They came home empty handed, not advancing out of their heats. Sixty years later it is unthinkable for a Bahamian team to return home empty handed. We have won a myriad of medals of all hues in the Olympic Games and world championships, not to mention the Commonwealth and Pan American Games, among other competitions.
On the second anniversary of the BAAA, May 6 in 1954, something happened that would change world athletics forever. On that day at Oxford University, Roger Bannister smashed the world record in the mile. He became the first person to break the four-minute barrier. His time was 3:59.4. Today, 60 years later, the record is 3:43.13, done in Rome on July 7 1999, by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj. That is 16 seconds in 47 years.
The Bahamas has hosted numerous regional and area events from the CARIFTA Games in 1976 to the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships in 1985 and 2005, and the Pan American Track & Field Championships in 1984.
A few weeks after the 62nd anniversary of the BAAA, The Bahamas will host the inaugural IAAF World Relays in its 15,000-seat state of the art stadium named after track and field pioneer Thomas Augustus Robinson. He was the first Bahamian to make an Olympic track and field final - the 100 meters (m) at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Much has changed in world athletics. In 1952, the Olympic Games were for amateurs. Today, there is much professionalism in the Olympic Games and other events.
In 1954, there were no world championships, World Indoor Championships, World Junior Championships or World Youth Championships. The changes in women's athletics have been unbelievable. Women did not run the 800m, the 400m hurdles, the steeplechase or the 4x400m relays. They did not participate in the triple jump, the pole vault or many other events.
Numerous athletic pioneers have passed, but at this time we remember A.F. Adderley, the first president of the BAAA; Thomas Augustus Robinson; Oscar Francis and Tom Grant, of the first relay team that participated in 1957 at the British West Indian Games. We think of Reverend Enoch Backford and the late Winston Cooper, under whose presidency the first CARIFTA Games was held. We recall the late Irrington Isaacs and the late Cyril Richardson, the second BAAA President and manager of the first Bahamian international team that participated in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, respectively. We also remember Cyril Johnson, now aged 80, and Leonard Dames, now 85, who participated approximately 60 years ago in Vancouver.
We cannot forget the first international 4x400m relay team, which finished third in Kingston in 1957, comprised of Oscar Francis, Ulric Whyly, George Shannon, all deceased, and Hubert Dean who is now 80 years of age.
We also honor Dr. Gail North-Saunders, Elaine Thompson, Althea Rolle-Clarke and Christina Jones-Darville, who participated on the first women's 4x100m relay team at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in August of 1962. We cannot forget Sir Orville Turnquest - the only founding member still alive.
None of our successes could have happened without great leadership in the federation, dedicated coaches and officials, great fans and - of course - individuals and businesses who put financial resources into our program. We look forward to the next 10 years of Bahamian and international athletics and dream of where both national and world athletics will be.

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